Province spending $73M on second phase of Highway 7 expansion

An Oakville construction company has won a $73.2-million government contract to widen a stretch of Highway 7 outside Ottawa and build four new bridges.

(File photo)

Bot Construction Ltd. will widen the provincial highway from two to four lanes from Jinkinson Road to Ashton Station Road, add a carpool lot at the Dwyer Hill Road interchange area, add new interchanges at Upper Dwyer Hill Road and Ashton Station Road and construct new service roads on both the north and south side of Highway 7.

The construction firm will also build four new bridges at Dwyer Hill Road, Ashton Station Road, the TransCanada Trail crossing and the North Service Road crossing at Lavallee Creek.

Ontario's highway expansion plan calls for the project to start this year and be completed by 2010.

This is the second of three Highway 7 projects in the province's five-year plan. The third project calls for the highway to be widened from two to four lanes between Carleton Place and Ashton Station Road, starting next year.

More than 17,000 commuters and tourists and 1,200 trucks use Highway 7 daily, according to the province.